Dawn off-loads patient in Boston 9/19

[vacaqn]

We were on the Dawn this past week and on Thurs evening when we were at the end of the Boston Harbor the Captain announced we were going back to port to off-load a passenger due to a medical emergency. I was speaking to a gentleman who was standing next to a man in the buffet line when he suffered a heart attack. I had heard the man was traveling alone and was from NYC. I met this wonderful elderly gentleman in the casino one night and ran into him each day. Since the night in Boston, I couldn't find him and was concerned that perhaps it was this man. No one on the ship would give any info. Does anyone know who the man was?

My question - why would they take 50 - 60 minutes to go back to port to get this person medical attention? Unless the person was ded, why not just send the person to shore in a lifeboat (they used them as tenders all week)? Wouldn't be quicker? Call the Coast Guard? Heli? If the person did survive, at least he was in one of the best cities in the world for medical care.

Other than that, it was a WONDERFUL cruise. Fantastic weather!

[nmnita]

thanks for filling us in on what happened. On a couple other boards people are wondering why the return. As for the reason they do medical emergancies this way, I have no idea, but I would guess it has to do with medical staff and equiptment. On the ship everything is there, oxygen, monitors, etc plus the doctor and nurse, if they did the tender, not everything would be at the finger tips of the medical staff. This could be one reason, but I am just guessing.

Nita